This question was asked on an aviation forum I go on and someone replied with this..

humans created airplanes and skyscrapers and many other wonderful pieces of engineering. What birds can do naturally we worked our socks off to do artificially, and succeeded!!

However being the most intelligent species on earth, we also brought death and destruction on a never before seen scale. We are the only species to take another living being's life "just for fun". We have also destroyed our planet with such things as airplanes and cars and industrialisation.

So, a world without humans! Let me think, a very boring world free of aircraft, Empire State buildings and Great Walls across China. A world free of comedians, doctors and lawyers. However this boring world would also be free of:

I kind of agree with this. We've done alot scientifically but via science we have also ruined alot. For example cars, planes, trains etc are all great but they cause pollution. We disrupt most ecosystems with things like deforestation and then decide we need to cull certain animal types, which leads to executing other animal types to retain a balance. If we didnt screw with nature and ruin the balance we wouldnt have so many problems now.

So what have humans really done for the world?

Remember how the runway lights looked one night long ago when you were lost and found your way, and how-you still dont know?

This is an interesting one and I've been sat here trying to think of a reponse, but I can't really, partly due to the fact that we've altered the earth enoromously. I think it's hard to say whether overall that's been for the good or the bad.

Obviously without humans the world would be free of war, racism etc. but they are things we inflict on each other (human kind) as opposed to the world itself.

That is true, things like racism we do inflict upon ourselves and not the world. Although regarding war we did create things like the atomic bomb, nuclear weapons etc which have the potential to cause long term issues for the health of all animals in affected areas

I agree with you dipsy, we have made some break throughs as such which are very good - although these methods were tested on animals, which then comes down to whether you believe that is right or wrong. Additionally - did we create most of these illnesses or have they always been there?

Should we really be exploring space? Sometimes you hear stories that people have seen 'UFOs' and it turns out that NASA says its just debris from rubbish they left behind on a previous mission - rubbish? The same thing we do to our streets that we regard as littering and we're already doing it in space too.

Also, are we at the top of the food chain, or not?

Remember how the runway lights looked one night long ago when you were lost and found your way, and how-you still dont know?

That's true Captain... hmmm.... in a weird kinda way animals also have their own 'wars' as well... whether it be for survival, or to become the leader etc. and killing their own species is sometimes the consequence. I suppose it's in our natures to some extent.

I definitely think we're at the top of the food chain because we have the intelligence and resources to control just about everything around us.

Good point about animals - I suppose in a way they do have their own minor fights/killings but they dont detonate a bomb that blows up a massive area to achieve their objective.

but does control make us top of the food chain? Think of if a lion or tiger escaped from a local zoo into a town - the town would become a ghost town because everyone would hide away - We are a meaty food source for such animals and physically they are better when it comes to sourcing out food - think of if you was out in the wild and a lion or tiger came at you and you had no gun, the lion or tiger will win. We have just devised ways to put us in a more commanding position and ahead of everything else, but regarding to the natural way of the world things like lions, tigers, sharks win hands down.

We control food sources in other ways with things like GM crops which are relatively controversial too.

Remember how the runway lights looked one night long ago when you were lost and found your way, and how-you still dont know?

Funnily enough my boyfriend and I were vaguely discussing this last night and we were saying how the invention of guns radically changed the world, they are such a simple mechanism when you think about it but they have caused a phenomenal number of deaths and injuries.

I have often heard the human species likened to a virus, we spread like wildfire and can cause untold amounts of destruction. In my personal opinion in terms of the planet I think we've done more harm than good if you were to really weigh it up.

Without the invention of planes travel would be much reduced and that in turn would probably reduce the spread of certain dieases, dying out of certain species (where a foreign animal comes and kills a certain creature from it's original habitat - if you get what I am trying to say. I know that many scorpions have been smuggle here), even plants can have an effect on another countries eco system. I am sure terrorism would be less likely between some countries. Boats are ok but I don't think people would ever use them anywhere near as much as planes apart from sea sickness for many the time they take to get anywhere would put them off.

Wow so jealous captianf. I believe in UFOS. (I loved X files )Me and hubby saw something really odd in the sky once but i can't say it was definately a UFO like you. Having aircraft knowledge does allow you to rule alot of objects out.Surely we can't be the only inteliigent life out there in that absolutely gargantuan universe that we actually haven't got a clue how big it is.

I once saw a REALLY fast light streaming across the sky...like a superfast plane...the light went behind one of the trees down the street (not literally behind the tree just from where I could see it looked like it flew across the sky but the view was stopped by the tree - if you get me) and the light didn't emerge from the other side...it stopped, somewhere...